Earth Day 2026

Today, Wednesday April 22, 2026 is Earth Day.

Here is the photo of the Earth taken by the Artemis II mission.

 

Take a good look.  It had a good run while it lasted.

 

There are obstacles in keeping our world safe and hospitable to life.

 

At the top of those obstacles are people who seem to thing the Earth is perfectly fine and there is nothing to worry about.

 

The big fat orange blob monster Donald Trump will still ramble that climate change is a hoax and so what if sea levels are rising, that just means more ocean front property.

 

Or something stupid like that.

 

One argument Li’l Donnie makes in defense of his position is what he perceives is uncertainty from others about what is happening with the Earth.

 

First they called it “global warming” and then they called it “climate change”.   If the Earth is getting hotter, how come it still gets cold and we have ice storms and what not?

 

Geez! This guy! 

Of course this dumb fuck does not understand the difference between "weather" and "climate".  

 

“Global warming” posits that the overall temperature of the planet is increasing. 

 

This warming impacts the strength, position and direction of air currents and ocean currents.  Polar ice melts more frequently which adds to the ocean levels.

 

All of that messes with the overall climate of the planet.

 

It doesn’t equate to the weather is hot instead of cold.  What these changes to the climate mean is that when it is hot, it gets REALLY HOT!

 

When it gets cold, it gets REALLY COLD!  

There are those on the right who argue that we've always had tornados and hurricanes. 

 

That is true but with climate change, we get MORE tornados and hurricanes with greater intensity.

 

It is kind of complicated which is why certain simpletons grasp hold of ignorant talking points to disavow what is going on around them.  

 

Besides Trump, other alleged conservatives claim the Earth is doing just fine and there’s nothing to see here.

 

Like that March 2026 was the hottest month in recorded history? 

 

Why this propensity to deny the reality of our changing climate? 

 

Mostly it’s due to that perennial favorite cause of conservatives, the almighty bottom line.

 

Every dollar spent to mitigate pollution is a dollar away from the sacred profit margins of big business.   

 

That’s why Trump and his cronies are so eager to tear through EPA regulations that mandate things like cars producing fewer pollutants.

 

Li’l Donnie will try to slap a populist coat of gloss that this is to help make cars more affordable for the common folk. 

 

Do you really think any loss in the cost of a car is going to outweigh any gain in the profits of automakers and their billionaire CEOs? 

 

Besides money, another argument made by conservatives involves religion.

 

They’ll argue that the Bible says God has given mankind dominion over the Earth

 

But dominion does not mean that people can do whatever the fuck they want with the world.

 

Dominion means responsibility as well as privilege. 

If one accepts the premise that God gave man dominion over the Earth, then that means God gave man the responsibility to not fuck it up.   

I once sat across from a man in a Sunday School class who said he did not think man would destroy the world because God would not let it happen.

Well, if that helps him sleep at night, so be it. 

But it is a statement that is dumb as fuck. 

If you accept that God exists, I think at best maybe God is rooting for us human to make this work and not totally screw up this small sparkling ball that we cling to as it floats in the cold lifeless void of space.

But God knows we are perfectly capable of making a mess of everything.

That is the power and the peril of having dominion.   

On this Earth Day, we need to remember this world is all we have.

And it is ours to keep.

Or to lose.